So here is the Norway moose which looks much more regal than the Swedish moose (look back a couple blogs). I still think that Swedish moose is sneaky looking..We left Tanumshede and headed north on the E6 which was partially under construction so we followed some detour side roads which were nice. We had to use up all of our Swedish Kroners before heading into Norway, so we filled the tank. Diesel here is about $8.50 in Sweden and slightly higher in Norway. All our Kroners filled the tank. As with the plumbing, everything here is different. Green is gas and Black is diesel so I asked another customer just to make sure I was getting the right stuff in the right tank. I did not feel as stupid for asking when neither one of us could figure the gas cap (or lack thereof) on the Fiesta. Indeed there is no cap and the nozzle pushed through some kind of steel/rubber door thingy. Nice thing is you cannot lose the cap. Everything is different and handily explained in Swedish. We got our passports out expecting to need them to cross into Norway. All the usual signs were there to slow, and then slow again and then slow down again (20mph), but that was it. We never stopped, but just slowed down and then we were back to full speed on the 4 laner. They must just slow you down and look at you driving by. Works for us.
The next hurdle was getting cash in Norwegian kroners. Sweden and Denmark and Finland joined the EU, but Sweden and Denmark kept their own currency while Finland uses Euros. Norway did not join the EU (they are pretty rich with oil, so not to their advantage) and they kept their own currency. Credit cards here all have electronic chips embedded into them and everyone has a PIN number, which we do not have. Since we are staying in out of the way places, not used to Americans, it is a bit difficult to use debit and credit cards. Not horrible, but you have to go from bank to bank until one of them works. This was the case here. Also English is a little tougher here, but still not too bad. Much better than our Norwegian for sure.
We stopped in Fredrikstad which is a restored 18th century village they put together as original as possible and then hid shops inside the buildings so you couldn't tell from the outside. The town was a garrison with cannon and all for a few hundred years. Most of the plaques talk about attacks from the Swedes and one final tense moment in 1902 when Norway asked for a divorce and got it. We also stopped at Halden and toured around another fort on a hill with much the same story. War has defined peoples spare time and maybe someday we can use the human and financial resources for better things. When you see these old towns you realize that whoever is attacking who, life sort of goes on, maybe under a different flag or currency, maybe a little better or a little worse, but everybody still gets up in the morning, kisses their kids, makes the donuts and goes back to bed each night. OK, I am done with that..
We got to our hotel and checked in. Left is the view from our balcony of the fjord (I think it is a fjord). The restaurant here was a tad expensive so we headed in to town to ask around and explore. We were told of a great spot where a lot of locals seem to meet and had a great meal. We strolled down along the boardwalk near the water where all the boats were coming in. We had been told that Norway encourages more immigration than Sweden and at least in this town you can see a lot more ethnic diversity. Quite a few women with head coverings and the guy working at the ice cream place was from Afghanistan. He says American is "King of the World with our B-52s". Not sure where to go with that but it sounded friendly.
The sun sets here at 10:30pm and rises at 4am, so the days are nice and long. I babied the Fiesta today and was averaging over 60mpg, but ended the day at around 58 mpg. I like these little diesels...
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